Iron Chef Girls!

Have you ever seen the show, Iron Chef America, on the Food Network? My brother and sister-in-law introduced Nate and I to this show! For the culinary-buff-wanna-be's, it is a great show to learn how to make one ingredient extremely versatile!! The only catch is that you only have 1 hour to prepare 3-5 dishes! Check out their website or DVR a show (they usually air Sunday nights) for more details!

My friend Tracy and I decided to try our own little version of the Iron Chef ... We call it, Iron Chef Tracy and Allyson!! Tracy is an amazing cook and I always learn so much when we are together! :) What better opportunity for a girls night than, cooking, laughing, talking, YUMMY food, wine, and chocolate!!

This week she and I split up all the courses and came up with recipes that had our "secret ingredient" as a main ingredient!! We tried to make the meal dairy free and gluten-free, so that always proposes a slight hurdle when picking recipes!

Without further adieu, are you ready for the SECRET INGREDIENT??

.... BLUEBERRIES!!

Here is the Menu that we came up with .... (links are provided for recipes)

- Fresh Garden Salad (org leaf lettuce, garden basil, fruit (blueberries of course), veggies, and a homemade blueberry balsamic dressing) - Tracy makes the best salad dressings from scratch!

- Rosemary Chicken with Blueberry Sauce - I found this recipe and let me tell you what, it rocked BOTH of our worlds!!! We would both HIGHLY recommend it!!

- Fresh farmer's market green beans (ok, we needed a veggie, but didn't have any blueberries)

- Blueberry Anadama Bread - Tracy found this one and it was awesome! A great bread you could even make GF substituting brown rice flour for the all-purpose flour.

- Dark Chocolate Almond-Blueberry Turtles -- Unfortunately our first attempt with this didn't go so hot. First of all, we both learned that you can't add margarine to chocolate for dipping purposes! Any of you chemistry buffs know why it just makes it hard? Second of all, I learned that chocolate can burn very easily! (Who knew?) I couldn't get the chocolate to melt in a double boiler, so I put it in the microwave ... long story short it burned ... we put water on it ... poured it down the drain .... caused some serious plumbing issues and had to call a plumber! (Good thing one of us knows one pretty well!) Chocolate batch #2 worked much better and provided an amazing end to our amazing meal! (PS. Tracy even had a decaf blueberry coffee -- I was so proud of myself ... I took 3 sips without completely gagging and puking!)

Here are a few pictures journaling our experience! We have already decided we are going to do this again next month! It is my turn to pick the "Secret Ingredient!"

Batch #1 of Chocolate before it burned! Yikes! (At least it still smelled good!)

The blueberry-pomegranate sauce for the chicken simmering!

Tracy cutting up fresh zucchini and squash from her garden for the salad!

The chicken marinating in olive oil, black pepper, and garden rosemary and lemon basil! YUM!

My first attempt at melting chocolate ... after this picture I stuck it in the microwave!

(Bad news bears!)

Something on all 4 burners!

The final presentation .... THE PLATE! It tasted as amazing as it looks! YUM!!

First bite of the amazing turtles!!

After our first edition of IRON CHEF: Tracy and Allyson, I can't wait to cook again! We had such an incredible time together and ate some yummy, healthy, fresh food!!

I am now taking suggestions in the comment section!! Please leave an ingredient that you would like me to use in all courses! I will then blog about the menu and link up recipes!!!

Iron-Chef wanna-be,

Allyson